The Marauder Years, Year One: Lily
by thisisathing
Summary: It's Lily's first year at Hogwarts, and she doesn't know what to expect. Thankfully, her friend Sev has promised to guide her through this world of magic. But, as they get to Hogwarts Sev begins to change, he already knows this world and the people in it, and he starts treating Lily differently because of it. Is Lily going to have to go through this new world all alone?
1. Chapter 1

**All characters and everything else in the amazingly fantastical world of Harry Potter was not written by me, but by the spectacular mind of J.K. Rowling. Copyright and all that jazz goes to her and her people. Enjoy!**

The Marauder Years

Year One: Lily

**Chapter 1**

"I'm not sure about this Sev," Lily muttered under her breath. The platform was packed with people all bustling about, not many noticed them standing there with their over sized trunks in front of the wall between two platform signs, one that read 9 and the other 10.

"Come on Lily, look how many people there are, nobody'll notice. Besides, I bet you nobody here cares about anything besides what's in their own bloody lives." Severus didn't show any signs of nervousness, quite contrary to Lily, he looked excited, much more excited than Lily had ever seen him really.

"It's just so odd, what if it doesn't work and I just go splat against the wall. I bet you people will notice that."

"I promise you won't go splat. Do you want me to go first? Show you how it's done." Sev's voice was always deep and strong but always seemed encouraging to Lily. He was much different from anyone she had ever known before, not just because of how oddly he dressed, or acted, or anything. But because he watched everything, took in every aspect of a situation, and then spoke his opinion with a strength that was decisive, yet never loud or too intrusive. He was strong and smart, but never showed off or raised his voice.

"No, no I don't want to be left here by myself, I'll go first." She stared across at the wall. God, this was so weird. She began to trot across the floor, feeling very self-conscious of how she must look. She began to gain speed, just wanting it to be over. As the platform wall drew closer and closer she instinctively began to slow down and close her eyes, but it was approaching too quickly, she couldn't stop, she would smash right into it…

Suddenly she tripped over something and was just able to catch herself from flying across the floor. She opened her eyes to see a beautiful platform full of people with carriages just like hers, all bustling about a giant steam engine under a sign that read Platform 9¾. She stood in amazement at her surroundings until someone beside her shouted "Hey you!" Lily turned to her left to see a boy her age with dark hair and grey eyes.

"You just ran over my foot with your cart and you're not even going to say hello?" he didn't seem mad, but more surprised and amused.

"Sorry," she replied shortly. She didn't mean to be rude or un-talkative, but she was nervous. Did wizards have a different sort of etiquette than normal people? Muggles, she remembered, that's what Sev called them.

"Leave the girl alone Sirius," a boy next to him joked as he attempted to put the first boy, Sirius, into a headlock. The second boy also had dark hair, but his was much messier and he wore round glasses that sat lightly on his thin nose.

"Gerroff James!" Lily felt a tap on the shoulder and turned around to see Sev, who had appeared behind her.

"We should be getting on the train, it should be leaving soon." Lily nodded, but noticed that Sev was looking at the two boys wrestling beside her, his eyes filled with a disdain she had never quite seen in him before. She began to see a new side of Sev, she had never thought of him having a past before, with friends and enemies, she'd always known him as a sort of loner, who'd always kept to himself except when he was with her.

They walked over to the train and went us the stairs on one of the back-most train cars. Sev lead her past a few compartments, searching each one for who was inside. At last they came to a compartment with people Sev seemed to recognize, slid open the glass door, and went inside.

Two boys were in the compartment before they entered. The first was small but looked rather shifty with dark eyes and high, deeply arched eyebrows. He sat in the back corner of the compartment, scrunched up on one of the two benches that faced each other. The other boy was bigger, but still rather lean, and sat with his back against one end of the car and his legs stretched out along the seat. He had light, almost white hair and small hazel eyes. As Lily and Severus entered, both boys looked up and smirked at the sight of them.

"Look who it is," said the light haired boy, "Sev'rus, it's been quite a while hasn't it."

"Too long Avery," Sev replied, " this here is Lily." That was when the boy in the corner spoke.

"Ah yes the mud-," Lily couldn't see Sev's face, as they were still standing in the doorway, but she knew he was glaring at the boy, his fists clenched in fists at his sides. The boy grinned a maliciously awful sort of smile. Lily knew she wouldn't like him. "-Muggle-born," The boy finished, smiling horrifically. Sev's fists unclenched.

"Come on Sev'rus, take off that hideous overcoat and sit awhile," the boy Avery jumped in. Then, he turned to Lily "and don't worry about ol' Mulciber, he's rather rude at first, but he just gets off on making people feel out-of-place." As if that made it okay. Sev scooted next to Mulciber as Avery slid his feet down, allowing Lily to take the seat next to him. Lily was just fine with this seating arrangement; she wanted to sit as far away from Mulciber as she could. She didn't really understand what had gone on just now, but she didn't like it.

The boys began to drift in to a conversation about people and things she had never heard of. At first she had tried to join in, but gave up after the only words she seemed able to utter were "what's that" or "who's that" or "why's that". Eventually she just contented herself with peering out the glass compartment door, watching the morphed silhouettes of people glide by. Lily felt a tugging in her stomach. She missed home, she missed the Sev that talked to her about things they _both _liked, or at least that she understood. She didn't know these people, and she didn't like them much. She felt like crying, but knew she couldn't, it would be too embarrassing. Lily, the weak little muggleborn girl who cried on her first day. That wasn't her. She just felt so alone. Still, she had to be strong, she was strong, it would all be okay. But even as she thought that, she wasn't sure it was true. Could she really trust anyone here? They were all so bizarre.

"What about you Lily?, said Avery.

"Huh?" replied Lily dumbly as she peeled her skin off the cold glass of the compartment's door.

"What house do you think you'll be in?"

"There are four," Sev cut in, "Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffendor."

"Slytherin's the best one," Mulciber added. They sat silently for a moment, waiting for Lily to answer.

"Uhh…well if Slytherin really is the best, than I guess that one."

"Good choice," Avery said. Sev looked a bit relieved, it seemed like this was some sort of test, she thought she had passed. Still, anything Mulciber recommended didn't seem like the best option to Lily. She went back to her window until she heard a scrambling coming from further up the hall of the train.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Probably just the trolley," replied Avery. He didn't seem all that bad, but there was still something about him she didn't trust.

"The cart that comes around and sells sweets and such," added Sev. Lily reached around until she found some of the silver and bronze wizard coins in her pocket. She desperately wanted to escape this car, and stretch her legs.

"I think I'll go get something," she said to the boys "anybody want anything while I'm up." They all shook their heads. Sev gave her an encouraging smile, but Lily felt odd about it. Like she was performing for his mates, and had pleased the crowd. She didn't like that.

Lily stood up and opened the glass car door. Down the hall of the train she could see a line she assumed was for the trolley. She probably shouldn't be spending all her money on sweets, but she felt she needed this. She couldn't stay in that car, she couldn't come back without anything, and she desperately needed some form of chocolate, maybe they even had Mars bars. Those were Lily's favorite. Lily stood at the back of the line behind a girl with crazy-curly blond hair who had already changed into her school robes. Maybe she should change into her robes when she got back. She hoped the Hogwarts express had a bathroom; she _wasn't_ changing in front of all those boys.

"Hey, I know you," said a voice behind Lily. She turned around to see the boy who had wrestled the other boy, Sirius, on the platform. James, she remembered. Out of the hustle and bustle of the train's platform, she really noticed him for the first time. He was an average height, perhaps a little taller than Lily, and was rather lanky, with an angular face. Still, despite his smaller physic, his obvious personality and bright smile made up plenty for all that wasn't present from his figure. He stood with confidence, not slouching, but not looking uptight. He looked down on Lily (though he was only maybe an inch or two taller) with a bright smile that stretched from ear to ear. "You're the girl who ran Sirius over with your trolley; don't worry he had it coming to him, the prat." He said this while smirking, but without any disdain or unkindness. Quite unlike Mulciber, Lily noted.

"I suppose I did, though he should know not to stand in front of a magically disappearing brick wall," Lily said. At this the boy grinned, somehow, even wider.

"You're quite right, the name's James."

"Lily."

"You're up Lily." She turned around to notice the line before her had disappeared, and she alone stood before a trolley of a thousand different odd-looking sweets she had never heard of. She stood silently looking over the treats, not knowing what to do. She hoped none of them would turn her into a rabbit.

"Muggle-born are you," James asked politely. Lily nodded. "Here." He handed her a purple box that looked like it contained some kind of jellybeans. "The best ones are orange with brown flecks, pumpkin spice." He was grinning again.

"Thanks." Lily paid for the candy and headed back to her car.

Just as she reached for her car's door, Lily heard Avery's voice coming from inside.

"Come off it Sev'rus what were you thinking bringing her along." Lily froze. They had to be talking about her, who else could the "her" Avery mentioned be. Lily felt a blaze of anger. What? Had she done something wrong? She knew she hadn't been all that talkative, but she had tried to be polite, it wasn't like_ they_ had been all that welcoming. Lily slid out of view of the glass car doors but stayed within earshot of Avery. "I mean she's nice and all, but she's a mudblood, and true Slytherins aren't all peachy and sunflowers and daisies." Lily definatly wasn't feeling all "peachy and sunflowers and daisies" right now. She desperately wanted to smack Avery in the face.

"Would you stop that Avery, I'm only a half-blood, what about me?" Sev retaliated.

"_You_ are already pushing it, if you want _him_ to let you join in you can't hang around with those kind of people."

"I mean, what do you expect he wants us to do?" Mulciber added "Make _friends_? don't be daft."

"But come on…" Severus began. Lily heard footsteps behind her. She had stayed outside to long. She opened the door to the car, and the arguing stopped immediately. A look of guilt passed over Sev's face before he disconnected eye contact and began staring at the floor. Mulciber had all of a sudden become quite preoccupied by twirling the wand that had appeared in his hand. Avery, however, stared straight at Lily, without even a hint of regret or guilt. She hated them, all of them, even Sev a little bit, but at least she had sort of stood up for her. Either way, what was she to do? She was new, weak, small, and she hated it. She knew she had no chance getting into a fight she didn't even quite understand, but that didn't mean she would just forget it. After she learned some magic, she would turn them all into the true rodents they were.

"What'd you get?" asked Avery sternly.

"What?" asked Lily. The simple question had taken her completely off guard, she didn't know what she expected, but it certainly wasn't small talk or whatever Avery was playing at.

"From the trolley."

"Oh," Lily had completely forgotten why she had left or even what the boy at the trolley had handed her. She held up the purple box and read the gold inscription. "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans," she read.

"Be careful with those," Avery replied shortly.

Lily sit back in her seat and peeled back the plastic wrapper around the candy box. They sat in an awkward silence for a bit until Avery and Mulciber began a conversation about something called Quidditch. Sev just stared at her, trying to make eye contact, but Lily avoided his gaze, staring intently at the different candy beans, choosing the safest looking to eat. Eventually, Sev weaned back into the conversation and Lily leaned her head against the corner of her seat. It was all too much, everything was too new, too weird. People already hated her and she had no idea why. Even Sev was acting weird. She felt numb, all her feelings tucked up inside her. She went back to scrounging around in the box of beans until she found an orange one flecked with brown just like the boy had described. She plopped it in her mouth and bit down hard.

"Ugh!" Lily screamed. A horrid flavor erupted in her mouth like vomit. The other boys in the car turned and stared at her. She gagged, and it took all of her strength to swallow the bloody thing, and not spit it out onto the floor. The boy at the car, James, whatever, had obviously tricked her into eating whatever disgusting flavored bean that was.

"I told you to be careful," said Avery "they really do have _every_ flavor." Lily knew she was blushing bright red. She attempted to scoot further in to the corner, hiding from the world. She closed the bloody box of beans and shoved into her coat pocket, not daring to eat another. Why was everyone here out to get her? Still, she couldn't just wallow in self-pity; she was stronger than that. Besides, James was just playing a harmless joke; he didn't seem to hate her like Mulciber or Avery obviously did. Lily had even thought he might like her, more than the others anyway, but she was probably wrong.

Lily spent the rest of the train ride sitting in silence after she went to change her robes. She had even seen James on her way to the bathroom, he had grinned at her, but without any malice, just a playful joy she could never imagine on Avery, Mulciber or even Sev's face. After she got back she sat, thinking about what a mudblood was (defiantly not a good thing), or which house she would be in (preferably not Avery or Mulciber's but she hoped she would be in Sev's, she couldn't stand the idea of being all alone). She knew nothing about this world; she was already so tired just from hearing about it. Finally the train began to slow, and people began to get out of their seats. They had arrived at Hogwarts.

**Continue to chapter 2  
**


	2. Chapter 2

The Marauder Years

Year One: Lily

**Chapter Two**

Avery rose from his seat, closely followed by Sev. Lily gradually got up as well, but with great difficulty, it was like she had melded into the side of the compartment after sitting still for so long.

"Do we have to get our trunks?" she asked Sev.

"People from the school bring them up," replied Avery. Sev smiled encouragingly and they headed out of the compartment. Lily was painfully aware of Mulciber stalking along behind her and couldn't help feeling self-conscious.

They headed out, down the corridor of the train, and out onto another crowded platform. People were swarming everywhere. Lily was afraid she would get lost in the crowd and groped for Sev's hand. As they made contact, Sev's hand jerked back, but quickly recovered, and they held hands as they weaved through the crowd together, heading towards a booming voice that called…

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" Finally, the crowd seemed to break, as most people were headed in the opposite direction. Lily and Sev reached a group of nervous looking people who looked about their age. Lily recognized James and Sirius as well as Avery and Mulciber, who they had lost in the shuffle of people. Lily let go of Sev's hand.

In front of them loomed the largest man Lily had every seen, her neck hurt just looking at him. He had a shaggy black beard and small bead-like eyes. "Come on firs' years, follow me," the man said. The group of first years began to move away from the platform. As the crowd began to clear, Lily was finally able to notice her surroundings. They had landed on a platform similar to the one at Kings Cross, but this one was outside, and was surrounded, on one side by a pleasant looking town, and on the other by a forest that had two trails, one that led back, away from the train, and another that led more sideways. The first years were moving toward the trail at the back, away from the other students who were mounting carriages that were headed for the sideways path. Eventually the group lost sight of the platform and the other students through the dense foliage. It was all rather spooky, the only light coming from the lantern held by the large man at the head of the group.

Suddenly, the trees cleared onto a great lake that sat at the foot of a cliff that held the most fantastic looking castle Lily had ever seen. Lily gasped. The whole thing emanated light, and stood, so majestically, with great towers made of stone and high walls. She didn't know how, but despite all of its features, the castle still maintained an air of welcome.

"Four to a boat!" called the giant man. Lily hadn't noticed until then the boats that sat on their side of the lake. She and Sev mounted a boat with Avery and Mulciber. She really didn't like the idea of being alone with them in the middle of a lake, but it didn't seem like she had much of a choice. She noticed there weren't any oars on the boats, and was wondering how they were to get across, when all of the boats started moving all on their own. Lily glanced back at the shore and noticed a mousy little boy clambering to get in before his boat left without him. She turned back around and rested her head on the edge of the boat, running her fingers through the water.

Eventually they reached the shore and began to get out. Avery reached his hand out to help her out, but she didn't take it. She rose up by herself, making especially sure not to stumble or trip. She knew he probably didn't even want to help her. It was all quite cowardly, if you didn't like someone you should tell them, and not act like you did. Avery, for a moment looked a bit insulted, even angry, but he quickly recovered and gave Lily a polite, yet still somewhat indignant smile.

Together, the group began the walk up to the castle, and Lily temporarily forgot her all of her misgivings about coming. Everything about this place was amazing, the sheer scope of it, the towering walls and twisting cobblestone pathways, all covered by a dark sky, dotted with faint stars. Eventually the group came to a giant set of wooden doors emblazoned with brass. The giant man knocked three times, making a large echo that seemed to fill the entire night.

Slowly the doors began to open. On the other side stood a woman with a seemingly strict disposition, who stood perfectly upright with her hands held behind her. It was odd, thought Lily, seeing people perform little feats of magic, like opening doors without pulling them, without a second thought, like it was perfectly normal. It seemed so simple, so easy, and so ordinary. Sev had told her none of the kids had really done any magic before, but she still felt on edge, and unprepared. She had already read some of her course books, but still. Behind the woman was a grand lobby. The walls were stone and lined with lit torches. There were hallways that bent and turned every-which-way off from the parlor, and a great staircase that led up to another floor. To the right, there was another large set of double doors, only slightly smaller than the ones they had just come through.

"Evenin' professor," greeted the giant.

"Good evening Hagrid," spoke the woman. "I will take it from here." The giant, Hagrid ushered the rest of the first years inside, and then walked casually down a long hallway, and out of sight. The woman turned to the first years.

"Good evening," she began "and welcome to your first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, my name is professor McGonagall. In a moment I will be taking you all through those doors," she said, gesturing to the right "to be sorted into your houses. They are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. Each of these houses has a long and noble history. Here at Hogwarts, houses are like families. You will go to class together, study together, and rest together in your respective dormitories. Every action you perform here at Hogwarts will also reflect upon your house. Any displays of good behavior will earn you house points, where any rule breaking will deduct them. At the end of the term, points will be tallied, and the house with the highest number of points will win the House Cup, the most prestigious prize here at Hogwarts." Professor McGonagall paused as a letter flew out from one of the corridors, and into her hand. She took it, and glanced down. "At this time." She spoke after a few seconds "it is time for us to go into the Great Hall. Follow me please. Single-file." The students all began to press together into a line. Lily stood almost at the end, just behind Sev but in front of the boy James who smirked at seeing her. The doors to the Great Hall began to open, and the students followed Professor McGonagall inside.

Immediately, light flooded Lily's eyes and she was temporarily blinded. It felt like coming out of a dark tunnel into a bright sun. But, the thing was, it wasn't even very bright, there was just so much going on. By the looks of it, the Great Hall opened up to the dark, night sky twinkling with silver stars. Most of the room was taken up by four long tables surrounding by children ranging from about Lily's age to almost all grown up. All of the kids were talking amongst themselves, laughing and joking. Everyone seemed happy. Despite her prior unhappiness, Lily began to hope. She couldn't help herself. There was something so grand about it, all those people; there was something about them that just glowed with joy.

Eventually, the noise died down as more and more people noticed the appearance of the first years. Professor McGonagall began to lead the first years down a walkway between two of the tables, to the back of the room where the teachers were all sitting. Standing before the teachers stood a small rectangular space where there was a small stool. On top of the stool sat a mangled, old, pointed hat. As Lily followed the line down towards the hat, the people on either side of the tables they passed turned in to look at them. One of them even gave Lily an encouraging smile. She tried to smile back, but she felt her stomach begin to churn. What on earth were they going to do to her? And in front of all these people.

When they reached the space at the front of the room, the front of the line began to fan out in a horizontal line facing the teachers. Lily followed suit, but ended up almost against the right wall. Lily looked towards the teachers, she was afraid she would make eye contact with them, but they were all looking towards the hat that stood on the stool. They were an odd looking bunch, some were extremely short, and then there was Hagrid, the man who had brought them through on the boats, who towered over everyone and barely fit in his seat. The person in the middle chair had the longest beard Lily had ever seen, and pure white too.

Suddenly, Lily saw the hat on the stool twitch. She swung her head over to look at it. Maybe it was her imagination? No, she decided, after all, everyone was looking at it. Then the hat seemed to spring to life. A slit along its brim opened up into a sort of smile, and Lily realized she was looking at a face! The hat began to sing. The hat sang about the four different houses Sev, Avery, and Mulciber had mentioned earlier. There was Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Mulciber had said that Slytherin was the best, but the way the hat sang about it made it sound kind of slimy; being cunning and such wasn't necessarily bad, but it didn't seem as good as the others. Besides, all the people she _assumed_ were in that house, sitting at the far left, all looked rather unpleasant. Then again, why was she surprised? Any house that Mulciber wanted to be in was sure to be plenty slimy. She just didn't get why Sev would want to be in that house, and why he was friends with them in the first place. Sev was nice and smart and not a jerk like Avery or Mulciber.

After hearing about all the houses, Lily thought Gryffindor seemed like the best, bravery and good-heartedness and all that. Who wouldn't want to be brave and pure-hearted? Then again, Lily wasn't all that brave, and Avery and Mulciber said something about her being a mudblood and Sev being a half-blood or whatever, which meant she probably wasn't _pure_ enough to be in there. Stupid wizarding terms she didn't understand. Why was she banned from things that she didn't even know? It was all so frustrating. Lily decided she would probably end up in Ravenclaw or maybe even Hufflepuff. They both sounded relatively good, she had gotten pretty good marks in school even if she did know nothing about magic. And she thought she was sort of kind and loyal. She was certainly more kind then that Avery, being all nice (or at least relatively nice) to your face and then talking smack about you behind your back.

Lily was too busy thinking she hadn't noticed that Professor McGonagall had given them more instructions. She turned to see her unroll a scroll of parchment and read a name, all the while panicking that they would have to do something magical to get into a good house, and she would be totally clueless.

"Abberley, Silvia" Professor McGonagall called. Lily watched closely as a tall girl emerged from the line of first years, confidently striding up to the professor, who lifted the "sorting hat" (as it had called itself), and gestured for Silvia to sit down on the stool. Lily didn't know how she did not look nervous at all as Silvia gracefully sat on the stool, swinging her long, thin, gorgeously black hair over her shoulder. Professor McGonagall placed the hat on Silvia's head, right over her eyes, stood back, and waited. Lily looked around; everyone was staring at Silvia and the hat, it was all so curious. After only a few seconds, Lily turned around as she heard the hat shout…

"Ravenclaw!" McGonagall took the hat off Silvia's head, and Silvia strode over to one of the tables, at whom, everyone had started cheering. After the cheering died down McGonagall called the another name…

"Abbott, Sam" who did the same as Silvia, going up and putting on the hat until it called out his house of Hufflepuff. The sorting continued with short, thin girl named Guinevere Argot, who was sorted into Slytherin. So all they had to do what put on a hat? That was easy enough, the only thing was that they were going alphabetically, and her last name, Evans, would right at the beginning.

As it turned out, however, there were a decent amount of people who went before her, including: Bellatrix Black (who became a Slytherin), Sirius Black (who everyone seemed surprised to hear become a Gryffindor, and who Lily recognized from the train platform), Samantha Blaise (Slytherin), Toby Boot (Hufflepuff), Trevor Caulwell (also Hufflepuff), Porpentina Chambers (Ravenclaw), and Ella Davies, the curly-haired girl from the train (Gryffindor). As the time for Lily to go up drew closer, she surprisingly became less nervous and more excited. Despite her apprehensions about this school, every time a person got sorted into their house, the people in that house looked so genuinely happy, so welcoming. Even Slytherin, who was by far the least welcoming of the bunch, had people who smiled (or smirked or whatever) and clapped politely, moving over to let the new student into their table.

Finally, just after a Kirsten Edgecomb was sorted into Ravenclaw, Lily heard Professor McGonagall call…

"Evans, Lily" Lily took a deep breath and almost jumped out of her skin as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Sev give her an encouraging smile. She smiled back, turned, and did her best not to shake as she approached Professor McGonagall. Lily sat down on the stool and just had time to see the entire school staring at her before McGonagall placed the hat over her eyes, and she was surrounded by darkness.

"Hmmm" Lily heard a voice say in her head.

What was that? She thought.

"Oh just me dearie," she heard again. It was almost a whisper, coming from the inside of the hat.

"The talking hat," she thought again "You, you can see inside my head."

"Quite right dearie," the hat said again "quite bright I see."

"I get good grades," she thought to the hat. It was odd, speaking in your own mind. But then again, nothing about this place, wasn't odd.

"Oh, but _those_ kinds of grades don't matter here. And besides, Muggle grading systems are inexplicably terrible measures of intelligence." Lily stayed silent. "Hmmm" it said again "very interesting. Plenty of courage and kindness I see…"Lily was glad no one could see her blush. She'd never really thought of herself as courageous, what had she ever done that was courageous?

"Courage isn't simply what dragons we slay, dearie," said the hat "better be…Gryffindor!" It shouted the last word, and Lily was blinded as the hat was taken off her head, and the Great Hall came back into view. She was very shaken up by this whole ordeal, but forced herself to get up off of the stool.

She was shaken out of her dizzying state as she caught Sev's eye. He looked utterly heartbroken, almost betrayed, and the look cut through Lily like a knife. What had just happened? Everything was going so quickly. She should have asked to be in Slytherin or whatever. Sev had been so confident that's where he would go. Avery and Mulciber were awful, but Sev was still her friend. Now she was all alone, all alone in this sea of people. What was she to do?

Professor McGonagall gestured for her to go, and Lily realized that she was supposed to leave. She glanced away from Sev, to a table of people clapping and smiling at her. She walked towards them cautiously, not knowing where to sit. She caught the eye of the curly haired first year, Ella, who scooted over to make room for her. Lily sat down between her and the kid Sirius from the platform, and the sorting continued with "Keitch, Maxwell".

"Hello," said the girl next to Lily. "My name's Ella." Her voice was soft, almost dreamlike.

"Lily."

"Nice to meet you Lily." They turned back to watch Maxwell become a Hufflepuff, and a girl named Shila put on the hat.

As Shila and a boy named Remus Lupin both became Gryffindors, Lily made a decision. She too was a Gryffindor. She was a Gryffindor, and Gryffindors were supposed to be brave. When she heard the hat sing about the houses, Gryffindor had sounded the best to Lily, and now she was one of them! Why was she sorted into this house? because that freaky hat had looked into her brain and seen kindness, and strength, and courage. All the people around her looked nice and friendly and way better than those Slytherins. She wanted to live up to that expectation, she would be nice and strong and not let any of this get her down. For all she knew, Sev could be in this house too, but if he wasn't, she would start fresh, she'd have a clean slate. Lily straightened up, and scooted over to let Remus and Shila into the table.

Lily focused back onto the sorting, attempting to remember each of her fellow students names, even though she knew she wouldn't. Her mum and dad had always told her to repeat then name twice out loud, but she didn't want to look like a freak murmuring names under her breath like a psycho, so she just said them in her head as best she could. The next person up was a pretty girl named Flora Madley who was unusually short and thin and who was sorted into Hufflepuff. She was followed by Avery, who only had the hat on for about two seconds before it shouted "Slytherin!". Lily was glad he wasn't in her house. After Avery came a boy named Quentin O'Grady who became a Hufflepuff and Peter Pettigrew, who looked very nervous, and on which the hat took a long time before announcing him a Gryffindor as well. By this point Lily was hungry and tired, but she was jerked awake when Professor McGonagall called "Potter, James". Lily looked up to see the boy who had pranked her on the train, in the course of which, knocking about the empty plate in front of her. Sirius turned to look at her and smiled suspiciously, but Lily just stared back, daring him to make fun of her. He turned back around to watch his friend.

"Do you know him?" asked Ella

"Not really," replied Lily. "Just met him on the train."

"Really." Ella's big eyes were looking at Lily inquisitively, like she was lying or something.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, it just seems like you know him is all." Lily turned back around. "He is very handsome though, isn't he." Lily turned back around to look at Ella, surprised by her straightforwardness. "You don't think so?" Lily looked back at James.

"I suppose he is." Lily replied. He was handsome, she thought, but she couldn't really think about that now, could she?

Professor McGonagall placed the sorting hat on James's head. After a few seconds, James smiled. Lily wondered what was going on, and what the hat was telling him. He seemed perfectly amused and in control as usual. The opposite of what Lily had felt throughout this entire experience.

"Gryffindor!" shouted the hat and Lily almost smiled.

James jumped up and beamed as he practically skipped toward their table, squeezing himself between Lily and Sirius. He high fived Sirius and then looked at Lily who turned away as their eyes connected.

"Did you enjoy the Bertie Botts Beans?" James teased. Lily made a grand gesture of looking back at James. It was odd as they made eye contact again. It was like he stared right through her with those light brown eyes, like he already knew everything about her. She was almost like she could get caught in his eyes; trapped staring in that void of brown, sparse with veins of green.

"Yeah," she replied sarcastically, glaring at him. "I absolutely loved almost vomiting." James grinned. Lily turned to the face the front of the room, desperately trying to watch Gulliver Richards get sorted, but had an uncanny awareness of James though her peripheral vision, still watching her every move. Lily tried to focus: Gulliver became a Ravenclaw, after him came Abigail Runcorn (Hufflepuff) followed by Mulciber, who Lily was content to see become a Slytherin, even though she would love to see him and Avery separated.

Finally it was Sev's turn to be sorted. Lily could see the nervousness practically dripping off of him, and her anger evaporated. She couldn't stand seeing Sev so upset. He had always known so much more than her about wizards and had obviously experienced so much more, but she still felt protective over him. She knew him better than these other _friends_ of his. He was insecure, he had trouble fitting in and living up to the expectations he set for himself. She doubted Avery and Mulciber had seen the side of Sev that she had, she didn't get why Sev wanted to be friends with them, but she wouldn't, couldn't desert him. She wished he could be a Gryffindor, she wished he could be with her.

The hat sat on Sev's head for a while, and it seemed like the entire Great Hall went silent. She could see him tense up, clasping hands, just releasing them before the hat bellowed "Slytherin!"

Lily's heart sank. Still, she felt like she knew this was going to happen. Even just looking at the Slytherins verses the Gryffindors, she could see that Sev would fit in better. However horrible they all looked, it didn't look like they would judge him for who he was like people did back home, and there was a beauty to that. Still, she was sad, maybe even selfishly so. Sev caught her eye, despite the obvious happiness he sustained at becoming a Slytherin, he looked sad, he didn't want to leave her either. This time Lily gave him and encouraging smile. He deserved to be happy. Lily would still see him too, even if they wouldn't have all their classes together, they would always be friends, and they would make time for each other.

There were only two people after Sev: Miles Standoff (Ravenclaw) and Millie Waffling (Hufflepuff), and the sorting was over. Lily was glad; she was so hungry. Professor McGonagall introduced the headmaster; a man with an incredibly long silver beard named Professor Dumbledore, which Lily thought was a very odd name. The wizard stood up and simply said.

"I am sure you are all very hungry, so I shan't even attempt to engage you. Begin!" On the word "begin", the professor raised his arms, and the next moment, there was food everywhere Lily looked. She grabbed some eagerly and began to dig in. It was all wonderful. Turkey and mashed potatoes and corn and…and everything else you could ever imagine. As long as there was this good of food, Lily decided, she would be just fine here at Hogwarts.

"Really goin' at it." James teased, smiling between his own bites of food. Lily just looked at him and dramatically rolled her eyes before returning to her dinner.

All at once, about a hundred shimmery white figures emerged from the walls into the Great Hall.

"Ghosts," whispered Ella.

"Are they supposed to be here?" asked Lily

"Oh yeah, there's one for each house."

"But there are tons of them."

"Yeah but most just go about there business I think." One of the ghosts came gliding down their table stopping in front of the first years.

"Ah! First years!" began the ghost "Good evening all, if I may, my name is Nicholas de Mimsy…"

"Hey!" yelled James "Your Nearly Headless Nick!"

"I beg your pardon but I prefer…" the ghost tried again.

"Hey, I've heard about you!" Sirius chimed in "you're the one who can take your head off." Lily noticed James, Sirius, and a few other first years looking anxiously at Nick. She recognized the boy Remus in the group and tried to remember the others' names but couldn't. Nick made a big sigh, and looked very displeased, but grabbed his transparent ear and pulled his head right off of his body. Lily gasped, the only thing connecting the head to his ghostly body was a thin strand of skin.

Nick swung his head back onto his shoulders and went off in a huff. By this time Lily was so full she couldn't eat another bite. She yawned and put down her fork, hoping they could go to bed soon.

After another few minutes, the headmaster reappeared and the room grew silent.

"Just a few words before you go off to bed, first I would like to welcome you all back to Hogwarts! Here we strive to teach you all to the best of our abilities. I must also note that the forest at the end of grounds is forbidden to all who do not wish a particularly unpleasant death. But beyond that nastiness, I am sure you are all tired, so let us end in our school song. Out of the wizard's wand shot a ribbon that curved itself into words. The whole school began to sing, using whatever tune they liked, but Lily was still stuck on the whole death thing. Was that just a joke? Or was the forest actually dangerous? Lily sure didn't want to find out. The song finished and people began to get up. A few prefects began shepherding the different houses up to their respective dormitories. Lily thought she had had enough excitement for the day, but Hogwarts never ceased to amaze. As they came up the main flight of stairs, Lily looked up to see a hundred other staircases, all of them _moving_; she had no idea how she would find her way to class.

"Hurry up please!" shouted the female prefect.

Finally they made it too the dormitory, which rested behind a giant portrait of a lady dressed all in pink, to which they needed to give the password "Tumble Oak". The portrait swung open to reveal the most magnificent dormitory Lily had ever seen. There were big comfy-looking chairs around fireplace, a giant bookshelf, and everything was painted red and gold. The prefect directed them to where she and the other first year girls were sleeping, a room with three four-poster beds that already had their trunks in it. Lily plopped on her bed, clothes and all, and immediately fell asleep.

Her first day at Hogwarts was over.

**I hope you enjoyed my story thus far. I hope to add a chapter 3 as soon as I can. Please feel free to leave any sort of review your heart desires! I promise not to take offense (within reason). I just want to improve!**


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